History

In 1953, the Blessed Sacrament Community’s Father John O’Brien, SSS and Brother Edward Mullen, SSS came to Highland Heights, Ohio from New York City to start a new parish. An old abandoned farmhouse became the first home for Saint Paschal Baylon Church.

From the very beginning of Saint Paschal Baylon, educating young people was very important. In 1954, just one year after Father O’Brien had arrived in Highland Heights, he set about building a church and school. In September 1955, after much hard work, the church, eight classrooms, and a school gym were ready to welcome 321 new students. Greeting students in grades one through seven were four sisters from a teaching community in Canada and four lay teachers. The principal was Mother St. Edward

O’Brien Hall, our current cafeteria, was our original church. Students had physical education classes in our current gym and also ate lunch there. In 1957, the need to add on was apparent and resulted in the addition of eight more classrooms allowing for two rooms per grade level.

During the 1960’s, Highland Heights began to lose its rural appearance and took on the look of a growing suburb. More homes meant more people and more people meant more children who wanted to attend Saint Paschal Baylon Catholic School. In September 1960, enrollment was up to 570 students with a staff of seven sisters and nine lay teachers. The addition of eight more classrooms in 1962 rounded out the number of staff to twenty-four allowing for three classrooms per grade level

Because of the great distance between the sisters who were teaching at Saint Paschal Baylon Catholic School and the rest of their community, communication was a problem. Compounding this problem was the fact that the community didn’t have enough sisters to staff the growing school. For these reasons, in 1964, the Sisters of Notre Dame took over the teaching responsibilities at Saint Paschal Baylon. Sr. Mary Maureen was the new principal followed by Sr. Joseph Paul, Sr. St. Barbara, Sr. Kathleen, and Sr. Mary Alice. The Sisters of Notre Dame were very dedicated to the school and gave many years of loyal service.

In 1966, Saint Paschal Baylon Catholic School grew to its all-time peak enrollment of 934 students. Officially opening on February 13, 1966, with 2,000 books was the school library. Volunteers from the Blessed Sacrament Women’s Guild funded the library and, for many years, helped to keep it running. 

Very late in the 1960’s, a decline in school enrollment was occurring in schools all over the United States and Saint Paschal Baylon Catholic School was no exception. The parishioners of Saint Paschal Baylon, however, decided that it was time to build a new church. The groundbreaking took place on July 20, 1969, and after twenty-one months, the church opened on April 8, 1971. It was Holy Thursday and the First Communion class inaugurated the new church. The drop in school enrollment to 600 students in 1974 allowed a kindergarten to be opened in September 1975. With empty classrooms available, fifty-two kindergartners were easily accommodated.

The 1980’s saw many additions to the school. The walls were painted green and gold and the classrooms were carpeted. Art, music, and computer classes were added to every grade level’s schedule.

In 1995, Mr. John Bednar became the first lay principal at Saint Paschal Baylon Catholic School. He led the school through the addition of the Family Life Center which opened in 2001. Along with the building of the Family Life Center came a brand new Media Center which housed thirty-five desktop computers in the computer lab and over 9000 library books in the library. A beautiful music room and a spacious administrative office were part of the addition. Jette Gym was also built during this renovation. Saint Paschal Baylon Catholic School celebrated its 50th anniversary in April 2005. In 2006, with the help of the SPB Parent Teacher Organization, classrooms were equipped with interactive SMARTBoards. In 2009, the school was awarded the National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence.

Following Mr. Bednar’s retirement in 2012, long-time Saint Paschal Baylon educator, Mrs. Carol Jansky, took over as principal. Mrs. Jansky was the driving force behind the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) initiative and led Saint Paschal Baylon to be recognized by The Ohio Academy of Science with the Governor’s Award for Excellence in STEM Education and Student Research for nine years. In 2018, Ms. Diane Raguz followed Mrs. Jansky as principal, and the school continues to excel in STEM education as well as the Language Arts earning local, state, and national awards in different areas.

Today, Saint Paschal Baylon Catholic School enrolls over 400 preschool through eighth-grade students with a faculty and support staff of forty. As a collaboration between students, teachers, families, parish and community, Saint Paschal Baylon Catholic School hopes to be a vibrant and dynamic school for many more years. Our commitment to the belief that all children can and will learn is one of the main reasons why we continue to be a great Catholic school with a great Catholic tradition of Service, Prayer, and Belief.